Following the war and eventual peacemaking between the Aesir and the Vanir, the wise giant who was created during the war, Kvasir, went throughout the world teaching people using his great knowledge. Unfortunately, two dwarves, Fjalar and Galar, were irritated by the giant's constant teachings. They killed the giant and mixed his blood with honey. This created a mead known as the magical mead of inspiration which allowed anyone who drank it to gain proficiency in poetry.

The dwarves later got to know a giant known as Gilling. When their boat capsized, Gilling drowned. In order to silence his wife, the dwarves also killed Gilling's wife. However, the giant, Sutting, on hearing of his parents' murder, captured the two dwarves, only releasing them when they had given up the mead as compensation.

Sutting knew the magical properties of the magic mead, and he knew that the Aesir would want the magic mead. He kept the three vats of the precious mead in his treasure chamber beneath a mountain, locking his daughter up with it as a guard.

When Odin found out about the existence of the magic mead through the head of Mimir, he set out the next day to obtain the mead. He found himself at Sutting's castle, and by trickery, killed Sutting's brother's nine farmers. Left with crops to be harvested and no men to do so, Sutting's brother, Baugi, agreed to Odin, who was in disguise, to give him a drink of the mead, if he helped Baugi harvest the crops.

After Odin had done so, he demanded his reward from Baugi, but Sutting would not allow Baugi to give the reward. Eventually, Baugi agreed to help Odin get the mead without his brother's knowledge. Odin gave him a magical auger, and tricked him into boring a hole through a wall of the treasure chamber where the mead was kept. Once the hole was done, Odin turned into a snake and went into the hole. Realizing he had been tricked, the giant tried to kill Odin but failed.

Now inside the treasure chamber, Odin found Gunnlod, Sutting's daughter. He turned himself into a handsome young giant, and, with three kisses, managed to coax the gullible Gunnlod into allowing him to drink and empty the three vats in which the mead was stored. When he managed to get her to open the door of the chamber, Odin immediately turned into an eagle and flew off. Realising that she had fallen into his trap, she screamed. Upon learning what had happened, Sutting turned himself into an eagle and chased after Odin.

Back in Asgard, the Aesir were waiting for Odin. When the form of the eagle finally appeared over the horizon, they took out three large vats as they were instructed, and placed them in an open area. When the eagle landed on the pavement in Asgard, there was a flash and Odin emerged with the three vats full of the mead. As the sun rose and its beams touched the wings of the pursuing eagle, it came crashing down to the ground, as a lump of stone.

And Odin said, "So shall it be with all the Giant kind. If the sun shines upon them in the holy land of Asgard, the evil that is in them shall weigh them down, and they will turn into stone."

And so, the Aesir rejoiced as they took a drink each, of the mead of poetry.

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